The exact meaning of this sentence is up for debate. You can see it either that those asking the questions are “dumbasses” or that the the Tea Party is comprised of “dumbasses”. I wouldnt be too confident in declaring his intentions either way. The one “dumbass” move that is not debatable is a GOP candidate commiserating with a Dem Party tracker.
He was not aware that this person was a Democrat operative. I doubt if he would have had an unguarded conversation with such an individual.